Former East Bengal midfielder Borja Herrera returned to Kolkata to haunt his previous club with a hat-trick for his current side FC Goa in their 3-2 victory in the 15th match of the Indian Super League at the Salt Lake Stadium in the city on Friday, September 27. Goa were also down to ten men by the end of the match.
The Spaniard got on the scoresheet in the 13th, 20th and 71st minutes of the game to ensure that the Gaurs picked up their first three points of the season and jumped up to the fifth spot of the league standings with four points inside their kitty.
While Madih Talal was able to score from the spot for the hosts following a contentious penalty decision in the 29th minute and David Lalhlansanga made the most of an error by opposition goalkeeper Laxmikant Kattimani in the 85th, it was not enough to placate the irate fans in the stadium.
For East Bengal, their season continued to go from bad to worse, with this being their third loss in a row, and the first at home in this campaign. The Torchbearers were indifferent in their distribution and passing all game and paid the price for it.
Although the hosts recovered somewhat in the second half, they were unable to overturn the tide that had gone the visitors’ way ever since they stepped foot onto the turf at the expansive and lush green Salt Lake this evening.
Chants of “Carles Cuadrat, go back!” were heard across the stadium from the usually inflammable supporters of East Bengal at full-time. The raucous crowd missed no chance to criticise the dull gameplay on display from their beloved side.
The Spanish head coach of this historic club from Kolkata will be wondering how his fortunes have turned so drastically barely eight months after winning the prestigious Kalinga Super Cup in Bhubaneswar.
East Bengal’s defensive errors cost them the match against FC Goa
While the first goal that Herrera scored in the game was owing to a poor lapse by East Bengal goalkeeper Debjit Majumder, the second was due to one committed by central defender Hijazi Maher.
For the first one, striker Dezan Drajic swung in a cross aimed for Boris Singh in the centre, only for Majumder to run forward and parry it straight to the waiting Herrera in the box. The latter did not need to be told to put his foot through the ball, albeit with his weaker right foot.
The second Goan goal was one of sheer class, with goalkeeper Kattimani sending a long ball to Singh on the right wing, and Maher failing to either take it seriously enough or read it as he normally did all of last season.
Facing Maher in a one-on-one situation, Singh did well to run forward and then pass it sideways to Herrera, who was again waiting at the right place at the right time. He took the shot the first time and managed to curl it in beautifully past a lunging Majumder.
Herrera completed his hat-trick in the 71st minute of the game when Goa right-back Udanta Singh found him on the overlap bypassing Maher. The 31-year-old then dropped his shoulder, beat the Jordanian on the outside and sent in another curler to defeat Majumder’s outstretched arms.
A talking point in this game came in the 83rd minute when Scottish midfield maestro Carl McHugh was shown his second yellow card of the day and sent off for coming in a tad late on a challenge on East Bengal captain Cleiton Silva.
The hosts seized the numerical advantage almost immediately with Lahlansanga finding himself in the perfect poacher’s position once Kattimani mishandled an attempted cross from the right wing and put it in the back of the net.
Earlier in the day, Nim Dorjee Tamang was penalised by the referee for allegedly fouling Talah inside the box where, in reality, the two had merely come together. The Frenchman duly scored from the spot in the 29th minute.
While Goa next host NorthEast United on Friday, October 4, East Bengal will travel to neighboring Jamshedpur to take on the Red Miners a day later in a 5 PM kickoff with the future of their head coach still hanging in the balance.
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